It was almost 12 months ago that Van Persie scored his sensational hat trick to clinch the Premier League title for the Reds against Aston Villa.
A lot of troubled water has cascaded under the bridge since that heady night for both the team and the Golden Boot winner.
He calmed them last week when he cemented his Old Trafford future and on Wednesday night he also calmed those waters lapping furiously up at manager David Moyes’ door with this Euro lifeline and his first goal treble since that joyous April night.
As Sir Alex Ferguson used to say, and no doubt warned Moyes, no matter the personnel United like to do things the hard way and give you a few heart attacks.
The galling part about the whole evoking of the ‘84 spirit and memories was how had the Reds got themselves into such a precarious position in the first place. How had they managed to put their fans through this anxiety. Olympiacos were not Barcelona.
True it was an Argentinian who had turned the screw in Athens with a goal. But a 32-year-old Argentine who had never appeared on the full international stage for his country. It wasn’t a Diego Maradona who was soon to be a World Cup winner and scoop all the personal accolades in 1986.
There was no Bernd Schuster, the so-called blond angel, who was European Footballer of the Year runner up and twice third place in the 80s. Instead it was a rookie loan player from Arsenal in Joel Campbell who scored the second to put dire United’s Euro future in peril.
They didn’t have a World Cup winning manager like the chain smoking Argentina boss Cesar Menotti engineering the Red’s downfall in Greece. Instead it was Michel who had never lasted more than two seasons in any of his managing stints in La Liga before moving to Athens.
But here we were hoping that United might just revive memories of cutting the mighty Barca and their stellar performers to shreds 30 years ago.
The Stretford End then was a seething mass of fans baying for the Spaniard’s scalp and generating a truly unforgettable electric atmosphere with 58, 547 inside that the stadium hasn’t witnessed since even now there are over 15,000 extra in the cavernous stands.
The problem these days is that the Reds at home just isn’t an advantage anymore. Only once this season against Norwich City in the Capital One Cup had United achieved the scoreline that would have put them through inside 90 minutes.
But this was the time to be positive. The United Review match day programme screamed on the front ‘Let’s go for it.’ It echoed Moyes’ pre-match press bullish words. The stirring rhetoric sounded like the Reds boss had finally thrown off the personal shackles and given United fans what they had been demanding during these tortuous times in terms of a Fergie-esque speech.
He talked the talk but could his team walk the walk?
Well, it certainly wasn’t pedestrian and much improved from Athens and last Sunday against Liverpool. The decibels didn’t measure up to that of three decades ago but the tension definitely did.
With United’s Champions League future hanging by a thread it couldn’t have been anything else and the first time the Red hearts ventured into the mouth came in the 16th minute when first leg scorer Campbell sped past Phil Jones and drilled in a cross that Perez scooped over.
The Stretford End breathed a sigh of relief . It was more than the rampaging Robbo and remi Moses and defiant young rock Graeme Hogg had allowed Maradona to do all those years ago.
But before the nerves could fray totally a superb Ryan Giggs probing cross was glanced by Wayne Rooney and his header hit the foot of the post. Another Giggs throwback moment from yesteryear followed as he floated in a cross for Van Persie and Holebas barged him in the back to give RVP’s fellow countryman ref Bjorn Kuipers an obvious decision.
By the time United’s Dutch striker had planted his penalty kick into the net the 25th minute came up on the clock exactly the time Bryan Robson had made the breakthrough in ‘84. Not a bad omen.
The stress levels never diminished, however, but the heart rate shot up when David de Gea was called into action in the 40th minute.
The Spaniard kept out Fuster’s header and then stuck a foot out to deny Dominguez his second of the tie. It was inspiring stuff from the goalkeeper and United didn’t waste the let off.
Five minutes later another masterclass ball from Giggs came to Rooney, drilled in a low cross and Van Persie sidefooted home. A goal and a link up between the pair - double bonus as the Reds levelled the tie on aggregate.
Ron Atkinson had told his troops in ‘84 to hold fire and stay calm in the second instead his players ignored the instruction and went for the jugular. The Reds did it again last night before Olympiacos could even suggest they could get that golden away goal.
Six minutes after the interval and the choice of Danny Welbeck to unsettle the Greeks when the Mancunian went at the visitors and he was fouled by Manolas. Rooney ran over the set piece and Van Persie followed up with a clinical finish.
The gallant Greeks were still interrupting Old Trafford’s celebrations as every attack caught the Reds support’s songs in their throat and hero De Gea was still being employed for anyone to sit back comfortably in their seats.
As the clock ticked down it was difficult for the Reds support to be that vocal anyway as their fingers were in their mouths being chewed furiously as Olympiacos chased the goal that could have seen them through.
The finale was pure Old Trafford drama and tense theatre.
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